


Male (27) seeks

by CruelisnotMason



Series: Happy & humorous sheith fics [11]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, Dating, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Found Family, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), M/M, Pining, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-War, s8 doesn't exist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26441710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CruelisnotMason/pseuds/CruelisnotMason
Summary: Pidge does her best attempt to convince Shiro that he should finally,finallyask out Keith, but Shiro gets it all wrong. He gets to work to put himself out there again, and maybe while he's at it, lose a bit of that full-blown crush for his best friend.Unsurprisingly, things don't go as planned.
Relationships: Allura/Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk/Ryan Kinkade, Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Happy & humorous sheith fics [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1350754
Comments: 42
Kudos: 123





	Male (27) seeks

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative fic title: Nothing compares to u (Keith)  
> Edit: Like a fool I forgot to mention that [guineaDogs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineaDogs/pseuds/guineaDogs) was my Beta! Thanks so much, Al!
> 
> This fic is part of a fic prompt challenge from the Black Paladin Sever. Watch out for future fics to be linked in the end notes!  
> The prompt was "Shiro's dating around but every guy who meets his best friend Keith gets intimidated by his beauty and leaves", and needless to say, I had a lot of fun with it. 
> 
> Disclaimer/Spoiler: If you don't like the thought of Shiro trying a sad attempt at dating and getting over Keith, this might not be the fic for you. If you're indecisive, be rest assured that nothing really happens between Shiro and the guys he dates, and it's clear that he's not really interested.

It’s not Shiro's idea to start dating, _per se_.

It’s an idea born from a bored, lazy noon where all of the Paladins lie together on one big mattress in Lance‘s room at the Garrison, when the typical summer’s heat is too hot to bear and everyone’s brain is melting.

Pidge had smirked and declared she‘d only enter Lance’s room again as long as this time his sweaty underwear was nowhere to be found. 

It wasn’t _completely_ unfounded. 

The last time they all came here together, they found Lance trying to hide away a huge pile of dirty laundry in his closet the moment Hunk eagerly opened the door. Today, Pidge is quiet despite the same smirk on her lips, hand in Allura‘s, while she lies close to the tall Altean, eyes trailing over Lance, to Hunk, then landing on Keith, mustering the exhausted look on his face, as he’s almost sleeping, only to stop on Shiro’s face altogether.

“It’s been some time since you were out, Shiro.” The Green Paladin stretches and shuffles closer to Allura, draping an arm over her, effectively making her girlfriend giggle. “All you do is work.”

Shiro reminds himself that it’s not _supposed_ to be an accusation, and even though Pidge likes to be snarky with Lance and Hunk, or even Keith, she’s usually rather soft with him.

But Shiro doesn’t fall into that trap. “Can’t do anything about that, Pidge," he says as if to break off that conversation immediately at this point. He pops his lips in that not-leader-like manner he's adopted whenever his only company consists of the Paladins. 

"I’m a busy boy,” he adds, much to the amusement of Keith. He doesn’t return Shiro’s gaze, lying on one of Lance’s furriest pillows but snorts in his half-asleep state. 

In Shiro’s opinion, that must have put an end to the conversation, so he mindlessly lets his eyes wander around the room, until he spots a shiny magazine on Lance’s nightstand. He extends the Altean arm to pull it toward him and takes a quick glance at the cover, before he puts it back again with a scrunched nose.

When he looks back into the round— Hunk drumming fingers on his stomach, Lance watching him, Allura playing with Pidge's hair and Keith slightly snoring by now— he mistakenly thinks the earlier conversation _is_ over. 

“I think you should put yourself out there again.”

Shiro briefly furrows his eyebrow before he squints at Pidge. Her eyes snap back and forth between him and Keith, making it very obvious. Shiro presses his lips together. 

At a seemingly last resort, Pidge hikes herself up to a sitting position to stare into Shiro’s face, dead-on. “Your clock is ticking. Nobody likes old men—“

The look that follows on Shiro’s face must resemble that of a little puppy, because in an instant, Pidge tries to paddle back. "Not that _no one_ likes old men, I just—“ Her eyes flick to Keith, who must have started drooling in his sleep. 

Even though it looks like a safe topic to talk about now, there's no reason Shiro would want to risk Keith waking up because of this. That alone speaks more than a few words, Shiro realizes. 

But he hasn't long to get stuck on that thought before Lance gives his own advice. This time, it's in favor of Shiro. 

“Don’t be rude Pidge,” Lance chimes in with an eye roll, “just because _you_ somehow scored a girlfriend, doesn’t mean we _all_ need to find a partner.”

Before Pidge can argue against it, she’s getting pulled down by one strong arm. Allura grins at her, reassuring. Then, she wears a playful serious face. “Shut up, Lance!”

Everyone snorts, and chimes in. They even start throwing scrunched paper, food, or pillows at him, except for, well. Lance.

“I don’t like where this whole dynamic here is going. I thought I had a group of friends so I _won’t_ get bullied.”

He gets a few soft pats from Hunk. “For accuracy, I think it started with Pidge bullying _Shiro_. And I think it’s because we need to spice up things in our little friendcircle once in a while."

Eventually, they all throw things again. Some land on Keith, and even he, with a sleep so deep he could be easily declared dead from one look, wakes up from it. 

As Shiro watches Keith wake up and yawn, he rethinks Pidge's words. 

Maybe she's right. He _is_ a certain age. He's not old, but he could get a partner at some point. And he has been weirdly reluctant about it. 

If he was honest about it, there’s not much of a mystery to it. There has been one simple reason why he hasn’t humored the thought of another relationship. 

Said reason lies on a pillow opposite him, yawns a second time, and finally completely opens his eyes, only to look straight at Shiro and smile.

Shiro smiles back tentatively, then casts his eyes away, back to Pidge again in an effort to not completely distract himself with Keith’s pretty face.

As much as he hates it, he feels like Pidge is right. Shiro’s not the oldest person in the universe to be single, but he can admit it would be nice to have a partner again, now that things quieted down around them. He can’t just like Keith forever, when he so clearly doesn’t think the same way of Shiro as Shiro thinks of him.

The thought is a little disheartening to Shiro, but as his life has shown him again and again, time heals all wounds. It’s okay if this one takes some time to heal, but it also cannot hurt to give it a kickstart.

Pidge musters Shiro from the side. “I’ve got the weird feeling you didn’t get the message, Shiro.”

“What message?” Keith chimes in lazily from the ground. Shiro and Pidge exchange a look, and Pidge eyebrows rise up to her hairline. 

“Oh, nothing really,” Shiro replies quickly. For some reason, Allura pats Pidge’s back and Hunk groans. Keith blinks at Shiro a few times, then shrugs it off. “I think I’ll sleep another round,” he then says, and blissfully closes his eyes again.

“A _fucking_ moron,” Pidge mutters under her breath, but Shiro barely catches it as he’s occupied with the horror of having to put himself out there. He hasn’t dated for a while now. Where would he even start?

Shiro starts with _the internet_. His profile reads “ _male, 27, open for friendships, likes hoverbike rides_ ”. Shiro realizes disgruntled that it might not be enough as he clicks himself through a million profiles that just show defined abs and ask for sexual adventures. But he’s not willing to change what he set up already, and it must suffice, because at the end of the week his simple face was good enough to earn him a couple messages.

He’s at lunch with Keith as he opens the first chat and almost drops his sandwich over an unsolicited dick pic. 

Keith perks up and cranes his neck to look at Shiro's phone. “What’s wrong? Did Coran finally message you about the new hydraulic booster?”

“Oh god,” Shiro coughs and lowers the phone enough so Keith cannot see the picture. “ _No_. No, he didn’t,” he clarifies and takes a second look at the dick, before he blocks the guy. 

“He probably got distracted,” Keith says, oblivious to the fact that Shiro still hasn’t said why he almost dropped his phone just now.

“Who?” Shiro asks and wonders if he should delete his online profile, before he’s back on track. “Oh. Coran,” he replies before Keith can even do as much as raise an eyebrow at him or throw him a weird look. Not that Keith ever would.

“Shiro, are you alright?” Keith asks after Shiro trailed off with whatever he wanted to say next, again. Shiro’s distracted by the vibration of his phone against his thigh, reaches into his pocket and turns it off.

“Splendid!” Shiro exclaims. “How are you?”

Keith cocks an eyebrow and smirks, and Shiro could fall in love all over again. “I’m fine. Just told you.” 

“Sorry,” Shiro says, a little embarrassed.

“It’s fine. Do you, uh,” Keith starts and takes a small bite from his stew. “Do you want to do something on the weekend?”

“Oh!” Shiro utters, but before he happily agrees, he thinks that maybe he should hold the weekend free for any possible dates that could arise. 

“What about Sunday evening?” he asks in the end, because he’s weak for Keith, and doing something Sunday evening still leaves one and a half days for possible dates.

Keith agrees with his quiet, private smile, drawing a helplessly love-struck smile from Shiro in return. 

It’s okay if it takes a while, Shiro thinks as they enjoy the rest of their meal in blissful quiet. 

The weekend comes, and Shiro doesn’t have a date yet. He remembers the times back in school when certainly once in a while someone would come around and ask him out, back when he and Adam were still together. Nowadays no one does that anymore, either because of Shiro’s rank or… Shiro.

When Shiro remembers his original plans on Saturday morning, he reopens the dating website and looks at two other chats that have opened sometime during the week. The first one sounds fairly creepy, so he immediately blocks that too. The third one seems okay, like standard procedure. Shiro messages back and asks if the guy has got time today.

  
  


He does.

Shiro has no real idea what the protocol for dating on Earth has become like, or what people search for in the dating pool. The guy he meets up with isn’t from Earth or its solar system really, but he’s got a nice face, dark blue-ish skin, and a short haircut.

He’s also the first one to send Shiro a message that doesn’t make him weirdly suspicious of every man on the internet, and asks if Shiro has time for a meet-up.

They meet at a coffee place not too far from the Garrison in broad daylight an hour later, both admitting that they didn’t have any plans for today.

The guy is gentle— soft spoken and polite in a way that’s not so different from this area— and proceeds to come off as non-creepy the complete first hour they are sitting there.

Shiro knows this might not be it, because even though this guy is attractive, he’s got this feeling in his gut that this date might not lead anywhere. 

It puts Shiro to ease in a way that he wouldn’t have expected for a first date after not dating during five years of his life, or even putting more than a few fleeting thoughts to it.

“It was refreshing to see your profile, Shiro,” Rhood says and sips his coffee. “I cannot make connections that easily.”

“Me neither,” Shiro agrees, relieved. 

“But I would be willing to meet for another date sometimes,” he adds, and whoops, there it is. Shiro tenses so horrible that it feels like a goddamn cramp all over his body, and suddenly he’s as speechless as a blobfish, opening his mouth and shutting it again.

It’s both a curse and a blessing that in the same moment Keith and Hunk walk by, and Keith simply stops and stares. “Shiro?” he asks.

“Oh boy,” Hunk says with a quick assessment of the whole situation. At this point, Rhood looks between all four of them, then to Shiro, who finally unfreezes again.

“Keith,” he says a tad too dreamily. “Hi.”

“Oh boy,” Hunk mutters again.

“Shiro,” Keith repeats, still looking surprised. “You’re out with a friend?” He looks at Rhood and examines him. Keith probably doesn’t mean too, but he looks like he’s inspecting the guy opposite Shiro for some reason, and for Shiro’s additional doom, looks absolutely mesmerizing while he’s at it.

“Yeah,” Shiro breathes, as if his brain finally got back from its brief short circuit. “A friend, yeah.”

Keith is wearing his favorite black sweats, a tight red tank top and got his hair in a low ponytail. It has gotten longer again, and Shiro likes how it falls off his shoulders in soft smooth waves. Today is sunny, and the light reflects in Keith’s big purple pupils like from the two deepest amethysts. For what feels like a too short time, Shiro chats with Keith while Hunk stays in the background and keeps throwing looks back at Rhood. They wave each other goodbye when Keith points out he promised to play some guitar with Hunk in the park, and Shiro turns back to Rhood, ready to focus on him once more.

“Now, where were we?” Shiro asks, smiling.

“Shiro,” Rhood says tactfully and ignores the question. “I don’t think this will work out.”

“Oh,” Shiro utters and his smile drops a little. 

Rhood looks to the side, watching where Hunk and Keith disappear in the distance, and then back to Shiro. “But it was nice meeting you. Tell me if you want to do something. As friends.”

There’s little that Shiro can do, so he takes the first rejection he’s ever gotten in his life, thanks Rhood for his time and apologizes, even though he doesn’t know what brought the change upon him.

Sunday evening, he meets up with Keith to help sturdy the shack and watch the sunset and stars later. “How did it go with your friend?” Keith asks at one point and Shiro shrugs. There’s not much reason to tell Keith the truth about his failed date, so he doesn’t. 

“It went okay. I don’t know if we’ll hang out soon,” he replies as a matter-of-fact.

“Mhm,” Keith hums and leans back. “I like this,” he says then.

Shiro pipes up, looks to the side at Keith’s smug face propped up under his arms. “Yeah?” he asks softly. “Me too.”

That way, Shiro’s Sunday takes a slow and warm end.

Shiro’s ready to give up and let things come naturally to him— and to accept the fact that he’ll be in love with Keith for some more time. It won’t change anything to him, because Shiro is Keith’s friend and Keith is Shiro’s, and even though sometimes the thought hurts, it’s the friendship that counts for Shiro.

But Pidge won’t have it.

In a weak moment, Shiro tells her about meeting up with Rhood, and her eyes threaten to bulge out of her head.

“Oh Shiro. No,” she mutters. For once, she’s not hanging out with Allura, because Allura doesn’t _love_ the workshop room at the Garrison. So whenever Hunk leaves the workshop room because Pidge is being an unbearable gremlin, Allura takes off with him for a walk or a quick snack at the cafeteria. Which, for today, leaves Pidge and Shiro blissfully alone in the room.

“What?” Shiro asks. “You suggested this.”

“I thought you could look for someone in your, you know, closer circle?” she says as if it’s obvious to anyone but Shiro what she means.

“What do you mean?” Shiro inquires and hands her her coffee mug. “At the _Garrison_?”

Pidge sighs, and takes a long swig of her already cold coffee. “ _Yeah_. At the Garrison,” she repeats pointedly but without much feeling and types away at her computer.

There are many people employed at the Garrison, and some of those who studied with Shiro back then are still here. There’s no one in particular standing out to him, and he also feels weird to even think about dating someone from his workplace.

“That doesn’t seem right,” he mutters, stays for some more time until Pidge is finished with her bug fixing, and offers to get lunch together, now that her girlfriend has run off with Hunk.

When Shiro goes downtown on the weekend to get some vegetables at the farmers market, he reaches for the same pink peach at the same time as another guy, and promptly gets his phone number. While cooking his vegetable soup a few hours later, he thinks to himself why not, and invites the guy over the next day.

They have an okay time, even though Shiro quickly wonders if his current interpersonal relations outside of the Paladins, his found family, are just not supposed to have any spark to them. The guy, blond hair, brown eyes, pretty short, even agrees to taste his vegetable soup, and they both eat a bowl together on the porch, and even though it’s pleasant, it’s simply… not as good as it could be with Shiro’s friends.

“Oh,” says someone, and of course it’s Keith, standing there with a toolbag in his hand. “You said I should come around whenever to look at the hoverbike.”

Keith eyes the guy next to Shiro warily, and this time Shiro realizes it’s inevitable to tell Keith at some point that what he’s currently seeing is supposed to be a mildly successful date; _if_ you could call a date where you didn’t want to kiss the other guy successful. 

“Sure,” Shiro jumps up, almost pours his soup everywhere and therefore gets reminded of the big batch that he still has in his fridge. “We’re eating vegetable soup, you can get some later if you want.”

Keith’s eyes shift from Shiro to the other guy, then back to Shiro. “Okay.”

“Be right back,” Shiro tells his date with only a short look back, and leads Keith to his hoverbike around the back. Frankly, Keith looks like a model even in a goddamn boiler suit. He has his hair tied back in the long, galra-typical braid, and his biceps are visible with the shortened sleeves. 

Shiro reminds himself to not let his gaze linger, asks Keith about his day and offers his help.

“You looked like you were in the middle of something,” Keith says with an amused smile, and throws a look back. Shiro wants to slap his palm against his head for his own stupidity.

“Right! Uh. Tell me when you’re done and I’ll treat you to that vegetable soup.”

“If you insist,” Keith smiles now a little more.

“I do. Thanks for doing this, Keith. I’m at my wits end with this one,” he pats the hoverbike.

Shiro hurries back to his date a second later, only to see him packed with his things and waiting. “I put the bowl into the sink. I hope that’s fine?” he tells a dumbfounded Shiro.

“It’s okay, but—” Shiro starts.

“‘This your friend?” his fleeing date asks and nods to Keith who’s working in the back on the hoverbike, hammering and pulling a few screws loose. 

“Yeah, why does that mat—”

“Shiro, it was _nice_ knowing you. But I don’t think I could compare.” 

And because it’s an unexpected slap to his face, Shiro doesn’t know how to reply quickly enough for his date to change his mind. The guy’s up and away faster than someone buying soda at a drive-thru, and Shiro watches after him, his soup cold in the bowl in his hand. 

It’s not a big disappointment for Shiro that his date left, but it’s a _sudden_ thing for sure. Since there’s nothing else he can do, he walks back to Keith and hands him all the tools he needs to get Shiro’s hoverbike back on track. At the end of the day they sit in the same place where Shiro sat earlier together with his date and eats another bowl of vegetable soup with Keith. Unsurprisingly, it tastes even better while he sits with Keith, chatting and laughing under the setting sun.

The following week Shiro meets Hunk and Allura outside the teacher’s buildings, as they wait for Ryan. They have some time to chat, and Shiro takes a seat on the bench beside them.

“So,” Hunk says after they’ve exchanged the basic smalltalk about their week, the weather and friends or family, “That guy Keith and I saw at the coffee shop—”

“Oh.” Shiro remembers. “Rhood,” he helps Hunk.

“Okay, yeah, uh-huh. _Rhood_ ,” Hunk repeats after him. 

Allura’s smile is frozen. “What, uh. What was that, Shiro? With Rhood?” she asks cautiously.

“A date,” Shiro replies dutifully. “I had a date with Rhood,” he explains to her, too. She nods, eyes slowly shifting to Hunk while the rest of her expression is poker-faced.

“Oh. Uh-huh,” Hunk utters, taking over. “Is that what you’re doing? Dating Rhood?”

“Not at the moment,” Shiro helpfully supplies slowly, squinting at Hunk. He _is_ being weirder about this than Shiro has been in the past week. Which isn’t completely alarming on its own, since Hunk is a quirky guy. Allura, then again—

“Ohhhohkay.” Allura looks left and right before leaning forward. “Did you tell Keith? I’m not sure he knows. Just, uh,” she pauses and looks around again, and Hunk does now too, as if they were talking about a big secret, “I support you, Shiro, but also I just want to let you know to let Keith down smoothly.”

Shiro stares at Allura, then Hunk, then leans forward too. “What are you talking about?” he asks them both.

“Just, I know you’re a good guy, Shiro,” Hunk explains, as if to defend… him. “But my boy Keith, he’s… I _like_ him, you know. He’s sometimes a little bit breezy and easy to anger, but I appreciate him. I don’t want him to get hurt—”

Shiro still stares. “What are you ta—”

“Hey babe,” Ryan calls from behind and throws an arm around Hunk who leans back again and presses a kiss against his boyfriend’s cheek. He smiles at Allura too, and looks at Shiro’s hunched over body. “Secret meeting?”

“ _No_ ,” Shiro says, leaning back to. “Not secret, no, no—”

“ _Nonononono_ ,” Hunk mutters quickly.

“Uh-uh,” Allura shakes her head, hair bouncing around. 

Ryan looks back and forth between the three of them, leaving Allura, Shiro and Hunk to sweat under his intense gaze.

He shrugs. “ _Whatever_. Are you ready for Korean BBQ, babe?” he asks Hunk, and also looks at Allura. Allura, apparently invited too, closes her bag.

“I am ready to go,” she declares.

“Me too! My treat.” Hunk smiles lovingly at Ryan, then looks back with a much unorthodox look at Shiro. “See you, Shiro. _Remember_ our words.”

“I will,” Shiro replies even though he doubts he can make anything out of it, and waves them off until he’s left alone.

The conversation with Allura and Hunk leaves Shiro thinking. He has some theories, but quickly discards them. The Paladins weren’t there when he and Keith… when they fought, and therefore don't _know_ the whole story. It’s not as simple.

Another possibility is that Hunk simply means that Shiro dating could be a threat to their _friendship_ , which Shiro is more on board with. He doesn’t see the issue, but acknowledges that he should be honest with Keith after all.

Somehow, the thought doesn’t sit right with him, but Shiro ignores that gut feeling. It can’t hurt to briefly inform Keith, and get it over with. There’s no harm in that.

So when the next moment for them to be alone arrives— Shiro drove outside to the shack with his hoverbike so they both could do a tour together— he decides that now is good as anytime, and he simply needs to catch the right moment.

It’s harder than Shiro thought.

There’s really no _right_ moment to just casually tell Keith that Shiro is trying to (unsuccessfully) date someone, and so he forgets about it during their ride. He feels good, and happy, and free, as the wind breezes by, and loves the way Keith’s hair gets tangled in the airflow. They stop at their favorite spot— it hasn’t changed at all since before the Kerberos Mission— and Shiro puts down a blanket so they can both lie on it.

While Shiro looks at the blue sky, without a real care in the world (there are some, they are just not too urgent at the moment), he truly feels at peace. Here, with _Keith_.

“How was your week?” Keith asks and it’s the first thing he really says to Shiro. They just got on their hoverbikes and drove away, without many words shared between them. It’s what Shiro loves about their friendship. With Keith, he just feels at ease. He doubts that he’ll ever know a person that will make him feel the same.

“Good,” Shiro sighs and thinks it’s a pleasure that they are all well— Keith, him, the Paladins— and that they have a good life. 

Keith doesn’t say anything for a while, and they resume to just watch the sky. It will take some time until the sun sets and the stars will appear, but Shiro doesn’t mind if they lie here forever.

But when he looks to the side, he can see Keith contemplating. 

“How’s that one guy?” Keith tests, looking to the side, directly at Shiro. His look is disarming, gentle, and a little troubled.

“What guy?” Shiro breathes, because right now, no guy really matters to him. The existence of any guys perished from his brain. There’s only one guy in Shiro’s brain, and that’s Keith.

Keith laughs, beautifully so. “You know, Shiro,” he says. “The guy. Or that other guy. _All_ the guys in your life, recently.”

“Oh,” Shiro says, quietly, realizing exactly what guys Keith means, “them.” 

Shiro wonders if Keith knows. He _must_ know. But it’s not an issue, because Keith is everything to Shiro, but Shiro to Keith is… nothing more than _family_. And that’s more than Shiro deserves.

“Yeah,” Keith breathes, voice soft and airy now. “The _guys_.”

“You’re curious?” Shiro teases.

“Not really,” Keith deflects, but his pretty purple eyes still look at Shiro. 

“My dates,” Shiro clarifies as a matter-of-fact, and regrets it immediately when he sees Keith’s expression fall.

Keith voices the quietest, “Oh,” Shiro’s ever heard.

“Not that anything, uh, went _anywhere_. They were gone as soon as they saw you,” Shiro laughs awkwardly, and then remembers too late that this too, maybe isn’t something he’s supposed to say to Keith.

And he’s right: Keith sits up and looks at him. “What?” 

Shiro doesn’t know what to say but the truth. “They saw you and decided they didn’t want to continue the date. But it’s okay, really—”

“They… what, why would they Shiro?” Keith stares at him, bewildered. 

“One said they couldn’t compare,” Shiro admits. “The other one, I don’t know.”

“Compared to what?” Keith almost chokes on his laugh. Shiro furrows his brows, because to him, it’s obvious.

“To you,” he says. “They cannot compare to you.”

Shiro feels everything around them quiets down and slows. His brain can barely catch up with his own words. There was no ‘they said’ or ‘they think’ in his sentence; it was just what he thought.

“No one can,” Shiro continues, digging his own grave. “You’re amazing, Keith,” he ends and stares into the blue sky, frowning.

“Date me, then,” Keith blurts and comes into his field of vision, blocks the blue sky, and is framed with golden linings of the sun. Then, as if he realizes himself, he pulls back quickly: “I’m sorry, I—”

But Shiro holds onto him, pulls him towards him. “I will,” he says quickly, mouth dry and eyes wide open. “If you, If you consider me, I absolutely want to.”

Keith’s eyes are too open wide, and he stares down at Shiro, searching for something in his gaze and holding onto it. His eyes are beautiful— emotional— gold purple and big, and his hair falls into his face as he leans down and bridges those last few inches between them.

Keith kisses softly, tentatively, like he’s the one who could hurt Shiro, but then he grows bolder when Shiro melts into it, moves his lips against him, and raises higher to meet Keith in the middle.

They break the kiss, but stay connected; Shiro’s head is pressed against Keith’s. They both take a few seconds to take in some air, to breathe, to feel each other and the warm sun on their skin.

“No one can compare to you either,” Keith says, and dives down to kiss Shiro again.

**Author's Note:**

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